Just Because It's Easy

With the random dungeon finder, I've been getting in a lot of groups where people don't know what to do, don't understand, have never been in a heroic before...and hey, that would be fine.

See, I have no problem with people being new to an instance. That's totally cool; everyone starts sometime, somewhere. The problem is people don't try to learn.

What am I talking about?

Well, let's take three anecdotal examples from my experiences, shall we?

First, Oculus. Yay, Oculus! Some of you may know that I love Oculus. However, Blizzard has nerfed Oculus into the ground so hard I literally had a group member stand on the electrified floor without moving out of the sustained breath-beam-thing of a sky captain with little to no heals without dying. This is really teaching people get out of the fire skills, tell you what.

But I digress.

See, the whole group but me (on Sugarcake; almost all of my bad groups are on my huntard) and the Paladin healer had never been to Oculus before. So, the Paladin and I attempted to explain the layout, the bosses, how to avoid pulling a zillion blue drakes, how to use the drakes...and we got through everything by brute-forcing it, until we got to the last boss. Continual explanations, drake shifts to give them something easier weren't helpful. The tank couldn't even find the drake vendor, still, after wiping multiple times. No one was paying attention, at all. It's not even "vehicles are hard" at that point; it's "you're not trying to learn."

And then...Old Kingdom. Oh my goodness, Old Kingdom. I got this instance twice in a row, and both times I had to leave early because it was just not worth the repair bills anymore. I felt bad about it, but I just couldn't stay.

The first time, the tank had no idea where he was going. This is okay; everyone has their moments when they're learning an instance. But he wouldn't listen when the group tried to show him the correct way to go, instead running in circles around the first boss's area, pulling extra packs of mobs that actually ended up wiping us a couple times (because, hey, no one is controlling the insta-kill spell flingers, and when I try to freeze them in place the mage is purposely breaking my CC). It didn't help the healer was continually AFK (or unglyphed HT healing), either.

The second time in OK, the tank was "undergeared" (i.e. in blues). Now, obviously these heroics can be accomplished by "undergeared" people; we did it in the beginning of Wrath. However, this tank played like he was in ToC epics, pulling without worrying about control or even threat, really. So, of course, spell flingers were eating people, lots of wipes were had. After the second boss, the DK DPS pulled a second pack of adds for no reason and killed everyone but the rogue and I.

As the Rogue and I talked, we discussed how if we didn't Misdirect or Tricks the tank, the adds wouldn't get picked up; but if we did, then he would die. My CC would get broken. No one was using defensive cooldowns. The Holy Paladin was apparently half-awake, and the tank liked to die in a blaze of glory. Half the time the rogue was evasion tanking or I was kiting or my pet was tanking.

When the tank pulled an extra pack of mobs on his way back in, I apologized to the Rogue and left the group.

It is becoming somewhat common that I find people think just because it's easy, they can do it without any sort of thought or care. They try to brute-force everything because many things can be brute-forced. They don't take into account that their gear can't handle it, that some things still will one-shot them, that they need to pay attention.

I could see how the current content would breed that mindset. After all, I remember logging in early when ToC first came out, getting extra consumables and reagents and feasts and preparing myself to stay on late, because this new boss had to be hard. After all, it was after Ulduar, and with only releasing one boss at a time, it was going to require some work, right?

We killed Beasts in 2-3 shots and went back to Ulduar. This left us totally unprepared for Hardmode, as we'd been lulled into a false sense of security by the ease of normal.

Some of it could also be that people skipped the "hard heroics" like OK and Oculus with gear resets, and now think they can just merrily romp through collecting their badges with no idea what they're doing. Which is, in essence, the same thing.

Just because something is easy doesn't mean it can't kill you.

Just because something is easy doesn't mean you don't have to pay attention.

Just because something is easy doesn't mean you can slide through it.

Just because something is easy doesn't make you immortal.

So pay attention. If you don't know, ask. Do your own investigating, even if that means simply reading the text supplied to explain how your dragon works. Slow down. Mark groups. Don't break CC. Look where you're running. Listen to your group members. And remember:

Just because something is easy doesn't mean you can't mess it up.

Beasts of Northrend, Hardmode (25)

It may surprise some of you who have never been in Heroic Trial of the Crusader (25) that the first string of bosses are, in fact, one of the harder fights in the instance. Those of you who have actually fought these encounters, however, probably know why.

Not much changes mechanically from Normal to Hard modes. The main differences are:

1. The bosses hit much harder
2. There are strict time limits before the next boss/set of bosses emerge
3. There is no speed boost to get out of the way of Icehowl's charge
4. Icehowl's enrage cannot be removed by Tranquilizing Shot

Vigilant runs a 3 Tank, 6 healer, 16 DPS setup (with about an even number of ranged and melee, sometimes a little melee heavy). This allows for minimal Impales on tanks, no need for a ranged (and somewhat squishy) tank for the Jormungar, and gives us a bit of a buffer should one of the tanks take a bad hit. The downside of this is sacrificing a DPS spot, and with the stringent timers for the entrance of the next boss phase and the final enrage, everyone needs to live and dish out as much damage as possible.

Gormokk the Impaler
For the first boss, we arrange the raid so he is tanked parallel to the boss entrance doors, with the tank on the left and the melee behind the boss on the right. Ranged and healers spread out around the boss in a semi-circle, not standing too close to one another. This is to prevent Fire Bombs from landing on too many people at once.



A good idea is to angle your camera up so that you can see above Gormokk, and watch the bomb trajectory in the air. Though sometimes difficult with needing to also keep track of debuffs, health pools and snobolds, if you can manage to see it you can often avoid the patch of fire all together.

Your tanks should be on a rotation, calling out when they are taunting off of each other. They should also be using cooldowns regularly towards the end (as Gormokk will have more stacks of Rising Anger), and calling out to the healers with cooldowns to use them. They will want to taunt at 2-3 stacks of impale, and waiting (hopefully) until their stacks fall off to taunt again.

When Snobolds go out, it is a time to prioritize. If the snobold lands on a ranged or a healer, that person needs to immediately move into the melee. This will allow it to be cleaved. All DPS who can quickly ramp up DPS should switch to this snobold to remove it, while those who cannot (such as a Feral Druid who would have to build up bleeds) should simply try to cleave it. Ranged DPS should switch as well, especially if it is a snobold on a healer or tank. Snobolds on tanks must also be DPS'd off quickly to reduce their chance of being stunned and killed.


Snobolds on melee DPS, however, can be ignored for the time being. They do not present a serious threat and are not worth the DPS sacrifice on the boss. They will be cleaned up either near Gormokk's death (in the case of having a good head start on the Jormungar timer) or during transitions and submerges.

Acidmaw and Dreadscale
After 2 minutes and 20 seconds, Acidmaw and Dreadscale will be announced, and ten seconds after this, Dreadscale will strike. Gormokk needs to be dead by this point. Immediately, everyone should move away from the door. It's possible for a Jormungar to go for a squishy melee DPS right off the bat, and if they die without the Jormungar being damaged or gaining threat from anyone else, they will despawn, wasting your attempt. It's also a good idea to use Hand of Protection on the tank with the most Impales (or the longest duration remaining), immediately followed by Hand of Freedom to remove the Hand of Protection.

You will have a grounded worm and a mobile worm, and throughout the fight their positions and status (grounded or mobile) will switch. You should always have two tanks on the mobile worm and one on the grounded worm. However, on the mobile worm, only one tank should be in front of the boss at any time, and no DPS, healer or other tank should stand in front of the worm. The mobile worm should be moved in a circle around the outside of the room, only being moved after it drops a cloud of poison (to reduce poison spread over the whole room).

Whenever the first tank gains the debuff (be it Burning Bile or Paralytic Poison), the other tank should taunt the boss. However, the second tank should only taunt after the first tank has been hit by the worm's spewing attack. If the second tank taunts off prior, the first tank will remain the target of the spew and the Jormungar will turn to face that tank to use its attack, hitting everyone that tank is near and likely causing a wipe.

You may notice there's no map for this fight, but that is due to its highly mobile nature and the Jormungar's ever-changing positions. There are some keys to remember, however. Everyone should spread out. This will reduce the chance of a mass of people being debuffed with Burning Bile or Paralytic Poison. Healers have priority of position. If a healer is near you and you are a DPS, move away from them. They need to be able to reach the tanks and/or raid to keep them alive. Their targets may often be on two different sides of the room, while you will only have one target to position around.

Unless you are trying for the achievement, Acidmaw should die first. According to personal preference, you can blow Heroism/Bloodlust as soon as your tank has a nice hold on threat to burn him down. When attacking any grounded worm, your melee should be able to self-divide into groups to minimize possible spreading of Paralytic Poison (and, later, prevent Burning Bile explosions that decimate half your attack force). They should also check behind themselves to ensure they are not going to be launched into patches of poison when the grounded worm whirls around.

Managing debuffs is important in this phase. People with Burning Bile need to seek out people with Paralytic Poison to burn off the debuff, without damaging people in the raid too much and without standing next to each other (blowing each other up for multiple sources of damage). When Acidmaw is dead, everyone with Burning Bile's only job is to stay away from other people (and, if you're a healer, keep healing, or a ranged DPS, keep DPSing). You can very easily cause a wipe by blowing up other people in the raid, so just be safe.

When Acidmaw is dead, all DPS should (obviously) switch to Dreadscale. Dreadscale will enrage, so it's important to make sure adequate healing is on the tank. Keep performing as you did when Acidmaw was alive, and you should have your kill. Make sure to monitor your timers; Dreadmaw should be dead or near-dead by the time Icehowl arrives.

Icehowl
Three minutes after the beginning of the worm fight, Icehowl will emerge. A tank needs to pick him up immediately and bring him to the center as soon as possible. Your raid needs to then arrange yourselves around him in a circle, as spread out as possible (including melee; use the sides and back).


This is important for two reasons: to prevent a large portion of the raid from being hit with the Arctic Breath, and to prevent stacking when Icehowl uses Massive Crash to knock people into the walls (and perhaps making them unable to see through someone else's character model). Healers should be spread out evenly to be able to cover people caught in Breath.

It is important, while arranging yourself, to look behind you. Will you be knocked into the few patches of lingering poison? Are you going to be knocked into a doorway (boss entrance doorway is okay, smaller doorways are not)? Are there a lot of people around you? Move. Make sure wherever you are is well-positioned both for your role and for boss mechanics. Remember, you have no speed boost and no recovery from an enrage. While it is possible one tank may survive the enrage through stacking cooldowns, it is also very likely you will be down many DPS from the Whirl or random threat before his enrage wears off.

Something else important to note is not to charge into Icehowl too early while he is running at the wall. Even if he seems to have hit the wall, wait a moment before charging in, as you may get caught in front of him, causing an enrage. This happened to one of our Feral Druids and, while not his fault (other raid members confirmed that his charge had been immediately after Icehowl had hit the wall), it is better to be safe than sorry. If you still have Heroism/Bloodlust, when he is stunned and against the wall is the time to pop it. When he comes up, resume your positions, rinse and repeat, and you should have a dead Icehowl.

The Five Amber Oculus Run

A lot of people don't want to be in Oculus more than they have to, yet they dearly want that Red Proto-Drake Mount from the Glory of the Hero achievement. And a good way to knock out two void achievements at once (Emerald and Ruby) is to do Oculus with all five people riding an Amber Drake.

This strategy, though not overly difficult by any means, does require communication, so you might wish to be on a voice chat program with your group. Also realize it can take a few wipes to get the hang of it. Since these are not Ulduar vehicles and they do not gain any benefit from your gear, there's nothing stopping you from stripping to your skivvies and enjoying repair-free deaths. It's best, as well, if you've done Oculus on normal, first, so you have an idea of what to expect.

The first thing to do is make sure you understand what your Amber Drake can do. They have three moves: Shock Lance, Stop Time, and Temporal Rift. Temporal Rift is not available to you until the third boss dies and you are on to Eregos. Shock Lance is your basic damaging spell. When combined with Shock Charges generated by Temporal Rift, it detonates them, causing extra damage to Eregos. Time Stop freezes all enemies in place with a diminishing return. And Temporal Rift builds up your shock charges so long as while you are channeling it, other drakes (in this case, other Ambers) are doing damage.

Setting up Jobs and Rotations

Alright, so you're ready to go, have all mounted up on your Amber Drakes and are waiting to pull. It's time to assign jobs. You should split the group into two groups. The first group is composed of three Ambers. Their initial job is to channel Temporal Rift at the start of the fight. Channeling Temporal Rift does not pull the boss, so it's definitely doable to have all three channeling before the fight. The second group is composed of two Ambers who will be firing Shock Lance in the beginning. This builds up the other Ambers' Shock Charges. As soon as the other groups' Shock Charges are up to a stack of ten, groups switch jobs, so the ones who were channeling to begin are now firing Shock Lances (thus detonating their charges) and the ones who were firing Lances are now channeling, creating more Charges. As long as this rotation is kept up properly, no one drake should have to fire more than two Lances before switching to channeling.

Now it's time for Stop Time assignments. You will have two drakes assigned to the first active fight phase, and two more for the next active fight phase when he comes out of banish after kiting. The first Stop Time caster should always be one of the drakes in group two, who start with the Shock Lance. This enables the channelers to be channeling before the pull without interruption, and an Amber can pull with a Lance, then use Time Stop, and then resume Lancing. The second Time Stop should be used when he comes out of the first. Be careful not to clip the first Time Stop, as two Time Stops cast on top of each other makes it run short (weird but true).

If this sounds rather complicated, it's all right. I have created a simple time-line that shows Time Stop order. Here are the assignments:

D1 = First Time Stop (Lancer)
D2 = Second Time Stop (Channeler)
D3 = Third Time Stop (Lancer)
D4 = Fourth Time Stop (Channeler)
D5 = Back-up Time Stop (Channeler)

Eregos is Pulled
D1 casts Time Stop
Eregos comes out of Time Stop
D2 casts Time Stop
Eregos comes out of Time Stop
Eregos Banishes
Kite Phase
Eregos returns from Banish
D3 casts Time Stop
Eregos comes out of Time Stop
D4 casts Time Stop
Eregos comes out of Time Stop
Eregos Banishes
Kite Phase
D1 dies
Eregos returns from Banish
D5 casts Time Stop
(and so on)

If Eregos seems to be coming out of the second Time Stop too early and your Ambers are taking massive damage from his enrage, wait a few moments before casting Time Stop until he actually is announced as becoming enraged.

Setting up the Pull and How to Kite

It's best to start the pull from in front of Eregos's path. He flys counter-clockwise, so when he is directly opposite you on the map is the best time to move into position. The Channelers should begin channeling before the pull, and they have good enough range that all three should be able to do so before the first Shock Lance to aggro the boss. This ensures immediately high DPS.

When Eregos banishes, he summons orbs that chase the Drakes and must be kited. They can be outflown so long as you immediately fly away when he banishes. Sticking together also means that there is less of a chance of one drake dragging an orb into others. If you set up the pull as shown in the first diagram (and explained to the side) then the first kiting direction will be counter-clockwise.

The next time, when you engage the boss again, you will be on the opposite side. This is exactly like pulling the boss in terms of starting jobs, though there will be different drakes on Time Stops due to cooldowns. This also means if he banishes himself again, you will need to kite clockwise away from him to get away from the orbs.

It sounds more complicated than it really is. It may take some trial and error, and requires some communication. You will lose drakes during even a successful fight, but it is very doable so long as people focus and understand how to use their mounts and their abilities, and keep to the rotation. And, well, if you took off all your armor, there's no reason to get stressed over repair bills. Just do your best, see what works, and soon you'll be two steps closer to a menacing red mount.

Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad DPS?

The answer would be me (and no, I'm not talking about arena; that's a whole different animal). What do I mean, then, if not PvP? I'm talking about the difficulty in changing from a healing perspective to a DPS perspective

Besides one or two isolated cases, I have never done serious DPS. I've done a few five mans on Bellbell, one Karazhan, a few Outlands dungeons on Sugarcake, and one stint in Karazhan as a Boomkek. Since I began actually understanding how the game was played, I've been healing. I have learned through what annoys me or my tank some of what DPS does, but more what I should not do. That's why I'm mortified if Cinnamon has his Growl on, or if I hit the wrong mob, pull aggro and die.

I've spent two years working on my healing. I'm far from perfect, but I'm always striving for it. So placing myself in a DPS position is a practice in suppressing my urges to drop out and heal (especially when I'm playing Bellbell and I don't believe the healer is doing a sufficient job; it's easier to resist when playing Sugar since she can't heal anyone but her pet). Unless there are marks, and there often aren't, I haven't learned how to prioritize targets to kill. Obvious exceptions would be bosses; I've spent too many times explaining why you should kill the adds on this boss and not on this boss to not understand those.

Organized DPS is also a supremely unforgiving environment, at least in the PUG world I currently reside in. Not due to the game itself; without CC being a requirement or necessary except in the most extreme cases, DPS is free to go all out with relative abandon, its only focus being "kill that big spider thing, and maybe get somebody webbed off the wall." DPS is most unforgiving due to meters; the highest placed person is touted, the lowest place is ridiculed. This makes a highly hostile environment for the new 80, the undergeared, and the inexperienced (or newly respec'd). I've seen, and tried to prevent, people being ridiculed or their opinions being invalidated due to a couple hundred points in damage difference.

Besides, everyone seems to expect you to just know what to do. Perhaps not on boss fights, but they expect you to understand how to use a DPS rotation, how to spec, how to gear, how to gem, and just what to do. And though I have many of the concepts understood, putting them into practice is an entirely different animal. I've improved with Bellbell, I believe, but Sugarcake is Beast Mastery, and managing both melee and ranged components (competently) is almost overwhelming. I barely avoided breaking two CC's by quick switching Cinnamon's targets, while I accidentally pull the mob with the least threat on the tank and forget that Oh yeah, I can feign death.

With Bellbell just reaching level 77, I have a lot of catching up to do, and only a little time to do it.

The Reasons for Hating Oculus

That poor, lonely instance Oculus. Its looking for group channel is always dusty and vacant, its loot is scarcely touched. The bosses chill out with impunity, which is rather a difficult task to master (but they've had the time). The drakes have plenty of time to make more whelps. The empty holes in Glory of the Hero mock those looking for a group, even as their friends respond to their requests for help with whispered obscenities and PTSD-like symptoms.

So what is it about Oculus that inspires such horror and loathing?

The first could be the requirements for Heroic achievements. You'll need to go no less than three times, and perhaps more depending upon the lifespan of your drakes and if you can get from the first boss's dying throes to the last boss's dramatic collapse in under 20 minutes. Not a single boss in the instance besides the last has any achievement attached to it. And there is simply no way to get all the achievements done in less than three runs with the inclusion of Experienced Drake Rider (and your drake must be alive at the end of the fight to receive credit).

Another issue would be that this instance, at least on the final boss, relies heavily upon coordination and competency. It also requires adaptation and understanding of your mount's abilities. You have to have five people working together with an understanding of how to function in varying levels of various drakes, and it takes a lot of trial and error. Last night I was in a five Amber Drake group (to get Ruby Void and Emerald Void in one go) and though we eventually got the boss down, it took some coordination, failed strategies, and consultation with those who had done it before (thanks Aegus and Iliana). We rode our drakes naked so we didn't rack up too much of a repair bill, and tweaked our strategy until we had it. But even with experienced raiders along, there were deaths and adjustments until we got used to the strategy and our drakes.

I suppose the main reason people dislike Oculus ("dislike" being used in its most extreme form here) is that, no matter how geared you are, how far you have progressed, or how you spec, it won't matter for the final boss fight. Your Drake will never have more health than your party can buff it (at the expense of buffing their own Drake), your moves will never do more damage than they do, you will never heal for more than you do, you will never shield from more than you do, at the first moment you step into Oculus to your last run. The Drakes are an equalizer, so that a healer can DPS, a tank can heal and the DPS can tank. Your spec can be terrible, and you can ride a Drake and win.


In some ways this is good. While the first three bosses need some decent DPS, they are manageable with people under 2k. While not all the achievements can be completed with low DPS, many of them can because on Drakes it just doesn't matter. All that matters is that you understand how to use the Drake in coordination with the other people (and therefore that they understand how to use their Drake as well).

However, people dislike Oculus because they have no control over improving their Drake. They do not get to choose what their Drake can do past color, and sometimes not even then (due to group makeup requirements or achievement purposes). This lack of control is frustrating and puts a lot of people off. They do not like having to "learn a new class" while riding a Drake, because, for all intents and purposes, that's what you are doing. It's impossible to cover for someone; if the only Emerald Drake dies, then you're SOL where healing is concerned. No one can off-heal. This rigidity can be irritating.

I personally enjoy Oculus. The first three bosses are just complicated enough to require environmental awareness and precision, while not completely blocking you from the rest of the instance. Also, since your own gear does not affect your Drake's performance at all, you are free to remove the gear and eliminate a lot of the penalty for wiping. It's unique and fun to learn different strategies and Drakes, in my opinion, and I look forward to going back.

Um, Hi. Purplez Pl0x!

Does anyone know why exactly you kill Sartharion? As far as I know, there are no quests connected to him. We know very little about him besides the Black Flight has been interested in getting Netherdrake eggs (eggs that were, at one point, their own and then abandoned in the Outlands by Deathwing), yet beyond that…what?

Sartharion seems to have little to no lore about himself. We don’t know why it’s so imperative we go wreck his face other than he’s all we have by way of a decent challenge off the PTR and his loot table that only takes about an hour to access, tops, if you kill the other drakes. Otherwise, what’s the point? Why do we care?

I know not everyone is into the RP aspect of the game, and many people shut the quests without reading past the “okay, I need to do what to get what? Got it” (and some not even that much). However, I personally get really confused when we do things just for the sake of purple pixels. I like to think there’s a point.

Well, lore buffs, do you know why? Or is it all just for the loot?

Perhaps it’s just dragon racism.

Puppy Love

The general feel, I find, is that PUGs suck, and no one likes PUGs. I do not mean the small little dogs, as they tend to be adored by many. There are people who dislike the little buggers, but generally not to the extent that has people spewing vitriol across the interwebs with enough fury to melt pixels.

Nah, what we're discussing is Pick-Up-Groups. And I'm here to be that small, tiny, sheepish, dissenting voice that knows it's about to get odd looks and patronizing tones, as well as questioning of its sanity. I understand this situation well; it happens every time I'm in Sidhe Devils chat talking about how much I enjoy world PvP and even being ganked.

I love PUGs.

Where else do you get to meet new people? Where else can you break out of the mold, of your clique, of your guild, and expand your network of competent people? Perhaps gain the respect of members of high ranking guilds who just need another? Or gain the interest of people who are looking at joining your guild? Or perhaps someone who will one day need just. One. More. Healer. for that run you've always wanted to do, but that no one will take you to because they want people who know the fight (rather than just having the skill to do it)?

Or even finding out which people to avoid, to not associate with, to warn your friends and guildmates about?

Of course, there will be PUGs you just cannot stay in. Someone grates on your nerves, someone is a jerk, someone just can't cut it and they're bringing the group down. I'll be the first to say that, even if it's to a lesser extent, that happens in guilds, too. In fact, it's worse when it's in your guild, in my humble opinion, because it makes leaving the unfortunate situation even harder. You will have to see these people again the next day, and the next, and so on.

And PUGs serve their purpose for a lot of people. They generally give me quick access to badges and reputation where I would otherwise stand around in Dalaran for an hour waiting for my friends to log on or wake up. They give me a chance to try new things without endangering people I know, and I can even help people out along the way. I offer to go help PUG CoS timed runs all the time. I won my mount my first time in there, and there's nothing but offspec gear in there for me; but it's quick badges and rep, and someone gets another chance at the mount.

Also, pugging with people who don't always bring their best has actually improved me as a healer. When I can keep a shaman up for five minutes against a boss in VH, when I can take down Heroic Loken with just myself and a tank...I think I've learned something. I see others' mistakes. I see my own. I see how things can work and how they can fail.

I've met amazing people through PUGs. Sannhet, another author on this blog, was PUGed into my first ZF run, and it was the start of a frankly amazing friendship. I have people whisper me all the time to see if I want to do runs or help heal a raid. Some are friends, some are acquaintances, some are randoms from trade, true, and some are people I've PUGed with.

I don't think PUGing should be knocked as hardly as some people do it. I've PUGed over half my experiences in WotLK, and my experiences have almost always been positive (almost). There were some bad ones here and there, but truly...

I just love PUGing.

(This seemingly pointless talk about PUGing brought to you by oshi-I-have-four-midterms-this-week.)

Heroic Resto Cheat Sheet: The Nexus

This guide is part of a series on healing Heroic bosses and gaining achievements. They are straightforward, quick guides designed to give an overall idea of what to expect.

The Nexus
Bosses
Commander Kolurg/Commander Stoutbeard
These bosses are optional, and they are exactly the same as each other except one is a dwarf and one is an orc, and one is only for Horde and the other, only for Alliance. Otherwise, they do the exact same things: Whirlwind, Charge and Fear. The Whirlwind has a ridiculously large radius and hits like a truck; the Charge also hits like a truck, though a slightly smaller one, and there’s a possibility of being feared into other frozen packs. The boss comes with two healer adds that must be killed first. An interesting note: since this is a side-boss, if someone dies they can release and run back in without getting locked out of the instance or not receiving loot. He still drops an Emblem and Stone Shards (as long as you have Wintergrasp, of course). This boss is only on heroic, but he’s relatively easy to heal through so long as your melee run out of the Whirlwind and you keep an eye on those who get Charged.

Grand Magus Telestra
This fight operates in three stages. Fortunately, they all come down to: heal everyone. There tends to be a lot of random ancillary damage, and the main tank will not always be the person being hit hard. This is especially in the second stage (and possibly the third), where the Magus will split into three separate mobs. Between each stage she’ll draw everyone into her and then throw them out several times like a yo-yo; try to time your Wild Growth (if you’ve spec’d into it) for when she pulls you in so that you hit as many of your teammates as possible. The key to this fight is prioritizing on the fly; who is taking a high amount of damage and who needs healing quickly, and keeping HoTs up during the three-split phase due to the possibility of Time Stop. If you can do this, then you can kill her. Also, as long as you are in Tree of Life form, you are immune to her polymorph (called ‘Critter’) and have an advantage over other healers.

Side Achievement: Split Personality
This requires a lot of control on your DPS’s part, and a lot of attention on your own. It may take longer to kill the adds attempting this achievement due to the need to micro-manage their health. This makes it even more important for you to keep HoTs rolling and prioritize your targets. Also, an interesting side note: the Frost form cannot be killed while casting Blizzard. It must either be interrupted or you must wait until it is over.

Anomalus
This is another “omg everyone’s getting hit” fight. Rifts spawn periodically that do an AoE around them; move away. They can also summon adds if not killed fast enough. When Chaotic Rifts become “charged,” however, you cannot outdistance the AoE, so it is more important to keep everyone HoTed and healed while keeping the MT up. You will often be the first target of spawned Wraiths, anything you can do to keep yourself alive is important, including Barkskin, Health Pots (if your mana pool can handle it), and Shadowmeld if a Night Elf. If you can mitigate this high amount of AoE damage (Tranquility can also help in an emergency), then you’ll be able to pull through.

Side Achievement: Chaos Theory
This achievement requires a lot of kiting, so make sure your group clears a large area around and leading to the boss. Kiting him away from the spawned rifts will allow for no damage taken from non-charged rifts, no Wraiths attacking, and the ability to stand still and soak through the damage while the charged rifts AoE their range-less damage. It will be at this point that you must keep everyone topped off, until Anomalus becomes vulnerable again and you can keep kiting. Just repeat until he dies, and you should have your achievement. Remember, too, that Wraiths can be killed, just not the rifts.

Ormorok the Tree Shaper
This boss is an interesting devil. If at all possible, one should never stand on the ice spikes; they do a good chunk of damage when they hit underneath you, and a small chunk when you land. However, they’re not always avoidable. During the fight, Ormorok will summon little lashers who, when they hit you, will entangle you in place. You cannot shift out of this entangle. Thus, anyone who is trapped in the roots needs to have HoTs on them in case they are spiked. They won’t launch into the air, but they will take a decent chunk of damage. Otherwise, simply heal the main tank and whoever lags into the ice spikes.
EDIT: Flawlless in the comments had this to add: "Omorok, Spikes are completely avoidable, Just stand directly under him at all times, have the tank tank him in the middle of the room, you can practically stand nose-to-nose with your tank, and keep all casters and melee there too, noone will get hit by spikes." Thanks very much!

Keristrasza
The Nexus is full of bosses who hit almost every single member of the group all the time, and Keri is no different. Keep jumping and use insta-casts as much as possible to avoid the stacking cold debuff, and keep people healed during the massive frost nova (which you can shift out of). Keep the main tank up, and you should down her quickly. Stay away from her tail, also.
EDIT: Anonymous reminded me; Keri also enrages near the end of the fight, needing more healing on the tank!

Side Achievement: Intense Cold
This is perhaps the easiest achievement for any druid. Simply keep jumping or moving as much as possible, and shift out of the AoE frost nova. This is an entirely personal achievement; even if no one else in your group obtains it, you can still gain the achievement if you do not get two stacks of the debuff.

Gear vs. Skill

On Sunday, I was invited to two different PUGs, who asked me just about the same question. Both reacted in somewhat the same manner, but how they chose to go about expressing it and their actions that followed greatly differed.

The first PUG was one for Heroic Utgarde Pinnacle. They needed a healer, and I needed heroics (and still need that elder). On my way there, I remarked in party chat that I had never been before, neither on normal nor heroic, and wondered if someone could give me a quick rundown of the bosses.

The immediate response was a wish to know my healing and spirit. Knowing it was lower than many preferred, I told them 1200ish in caster, with over 800 spirit, and 1330 healing in tree form.

What followed was a long, uneasy stretch of silence. After about five minutes, there was a sort of uncomfortable “I guess we’ll try it” and the bosses explained in about two sentences. The rogue disconnects.

I get to the instance and the lock and I start summoning. Four people are there and we run inside. Another person disconnects. Then the tank disconnects, and it’s just me and the warlock. Though of course I have no proof, I strongly suspect it’s due to the numbers I put in chat. Insulted, I thank the warlock and hearth.

Fast forward a few hours, and I’m in Dalaran when someone advertises for a healer for heroic Old Kingdom. I’ve also never been here, but I need badges and gear. I whisper the one asking. He also asks me for my healing, telling me it’s a difficult heroic. I reply with the numbers, and tell him I’ve never been, and it’s all right if he wanted to find another healer. He is also unsure, but he gives me a chance. A healer, who in his eyes is dangerously close to undergeared, who has never been, will still get a chance.

I have never had so much fun in an instance. It was challenging, forced me to focus and kept me on my toes. I think there were three deaths throughout the instance, and one wipe due to an accidental double pull. We made the corpse timer, I got two pieces of loot, and the tank was thrilled with me.

Gear isn’t everything. That tank took a chance bringing me along, and it paid off. I understand not everyone wants to take that chance; that people can be “elitist,” or at least jaded from bad PUGs. They could want an easy ride or simply think if you don’t hit a certain number, then you can’t do it. Sometimes gear means a lot; there are caps tanks need to meet, a certain amount of hit dps needs, but other stats aren’t always so regimented and a lot does depend on skill.

On Tuesday morning, I ran with a prot paladin with only 19k health, whose first instance as a tank was Heroic VH. I was forced to swallow some of my own advice; despite my irritation at his inability to hold aggro, and how he never used Captain America, the group as a whole worked with him to improve his tanking. They held back on DPS so he could generate threat easier, I blew cooldowns like a madwoman, and we helped him by reminding him to throw his shield and how to prioritize the different targets. In the end, VH went down, we all got loot, and there was only one initial wipe. It was difficult, but the tank improved and we got our badges and spirit shards.

Give people a chance, and don’t always judge them by their gear.

EDIT: I would like to reiterate that the part that insulted me the most was the fact that they chose to disconnect; if they had told me they were not comfortable with me healing, that would have been fine and I would have respected that choice, just as I told the tank looking for AN that he could choose not to take me.

Rez. Your. !@#$%^&. Pet.

It seems like I'm not the only one with bad PuGs these days.

Now, as most of you know, I received WotLK late, and did not really start levelling until after the New Years. Now I'm 77 1/2 (yes, that's a level) and enjoying the conveniences of an epic flight form once again. I've also been pugging almost everything; as most of my friends are 80, half the time they'll be in raids or heroics when I want to do an instance.

Now, in doing so, I've met some really great people. For example, Arik the gnome warrior. He said he'd never done Violet Hold on some of the bosses before. Yet he adapted to every single one, and we never wiped. No one ever died. It was just flawless, and afterwards we put each other on our friends lists in the hope of running things with each other again.

Then...then came the Azjol-Nerub run.

Or, at least, that's what it was supposed to be. But the instance wouldn't let us in, so we headed to Old Kingdom to do that instead.

It should have been a tip-off when the hunter said they only had 800 arrows, and they hoped they lasted.

It should have been a tip-off when the mage didn't have reagents for a table or group buffs.

It should have been a tip-off when the shadow priest mentions she's tried Azjol-Nerub 11 times and only once gotten past the first boss, and never gotten to the end.

But, well, those are all "in hindsight;" people just happen to be forgetful, and these things happen. She could have been horribly unlucky with PuGs. It's okay, we'll be fine.

Then the ret paladin tank (he's 80, in tank gear, so I figured it would be okay), pulls two groups and has no concept of AoE threat. That's okay, though; his dps has no concept of kill-order.

We wipe on the first boss because, even though they were told to do so, no one killed the Guardians. The priests says she'll try to announce it, and I point out that the game announces it, in yellow, in the center of their screen.

We down him the next time.

The shadow priest starts pulling for the paladin, since he has no range. She uses Mind Blast, so she gains enough aggro the ret paladin cannot yank it off her, and she dies. Multiple times. Except for the time the ret paladin runs into a group, and pulls a second, and then everyone dies but me because I shadowmelded. It's about this time that I see they're all in the same guild.

Oh yeah, guess what else? I figure out that the hunter hasn't rezzed his pet since the first time it died. It was a warpstalker. I ask him where his pet is. The mage and him say that it is dead. I, of course, respond that he should rez it. The answer is that it is bad, so he doesn't want to. This is also the hunter that didn't bring enough arrows, and at this time is down to 80. I know someone who would be very dissappointed in you, sir.

Also...they're standing in fire. Repeatedly. After I say in chat not to. Review the results:

This was after the second time I had asked. And he wasn't the only one!

After the wipe on the third boss, I split. They said they had to go repair; my armor was only at half durability by that point, so it was obvious they came unprepared. I said I was done, left group, and went to Drak'Tharon Keep with Sannhet, where we killed everything with ease.

This group bothered me because I had never before felt so abused. I am overgeared for the level I am at, thanks to my dedication, research, and raiding in the Burning Crusade. I have made about four upgrades, maybe five since entering Wrath of the Lich King, and I still have over 1.1k +healing. My healing saved them from their own stupidity and clumsiness time and time again. I saved them from standing in the fire, from pulling too many groups, from being too slow on dps by pounding every key, every cooldown, every OSHI- button. And I know I shouldn't have; after all, I wrote an entire post about why that was a bad thing.

So why, then, would I specifically hide the name of one of them in that picture? Why haven't I called out their guild?

They were nice. They were not rude, or mean, they never yelled at anyone over wipes. It was obvious they were not hardcore players, and they were just in it for the fun. Even after wipes, they were like "it's okay, we'll try again." And I love and support that mentality. I left because I no longer wanted to carry them through the instance.

And trashing their guild would do me no good, at all. In Sannhet's group, we invited in a hunter (different hunter) from their guild. And he was great. Did everything hunters should do.

So, in the end, the four members of that guild, I will never instance with again. They were nice, obviously there to down some bosses and have fun, but they had not put any effort to be prepared or even really know what they were doing. They didn't follow direction well (which I suppose could be coddled by the "don't worry, we'll try again" attitude) and got me killed more than I liked.

Great people. Bad players.

I skipped so much content!

Champion of the Naaru, in particular this time.

Oddly enough, I don't have that title yet. The Naaru trial quests for Shadow Labyrinth and Arcatraz have been sitting in my quest log for forever, and I've just never gotten them done. Honestly, who needs Heroics when you're in BT every other night? Badges can be found lying in the carcasses of Karazhan bosses!

But, I digress.

To finish up the Trial of Strength, Sharlet and I recruited some PUGs (read: Sharlet did dailies while I advertised in trade chat) and headed in, me hoping to finally see Murmur. Grand Master Warlock Voidwalker Eating Banishing C*ckblock Vorpil had always stopped me from getting anywhere in Heroic Shadow Labyrinth other than the floor. Of course, the eventual "run away we're going to wipe I'm almost at the door OH CRAP TELEPORT *death*" is always amusing, in that repair bill sort of way. But to complete the trial, you have to kill him, not just be morbidly amused by your ineffectiveness.

First two bosses go out without a hitch, Sharlet and the lock dying in one of the early pulls thanks to a lag spike on my part. Followed by a disconnect in which no one died, and we're off to a great start! Still, the first two bosses are downed, including my favorite, without incident. "It's time for fun!" is truly what it is. Goodness but I love that boss.

I digress.

Anyway, we got to Vorpil, and unlucky banishes screw us over time and again. The worst was where Sharlet was banished...three times? in a row. Kiting was non-existant, dps was dying, and our repair bills mounted. By that point I was no longer amused, just frustrated. But he finally went down, and I was proud of myself for feral charging and bashing voidwalkers when I got a free moment to slow them down. Utility pvp spec ftw!

So then it's the mind controller pulls before Murmur, and 2 out of 3 times I ended up dead. Luckily, no one else did. You know, luckily for them.

Anyway, so now we're at Murmur. Sharlet explains him, and in we go. And there we die. And then we die again. And again. And one of those was completely my fault for dying in the first Sonic Boom. I felt horrible; I hate causing wipes. Hate it. So, back in we go. And this time, I watch it. I watch it so close that I don't get hit with it but once when I got Touched right before a Sonic Boom and got thrown into the air at an unfortunate time.

Thank you Health Potions.

Anyway, what was interesting about this fight was...well, the only ones who didn't die were Sharlet and me. Warlock died, hunter died, rogue died twice. Sharlet and I DPS, tanked and healed Murmur for about 10% of his life. And when he starts out at only 30%, that's a third of the boss. The rogue was taking bets about when I was going to run out of mana; he must have seen me chuggin' pots. In my mind I was thinking "What do you mean? I'm a resto druid, beyotch. Until the expansion, I don't run out of mana!" and, in actuality, I ended the battle with about 1/5th of my mana gone in total, due to needing to innervate at about 2%.

It was a scary game, me relying on my Vial of the Sunwell for a Silence, ticking HoTs for others, my Redeemer's Alchemist Stone helping me get more from my Health Potions, my Nature's Swiftness + Healing Touch for an emergency, and quickly memorizing exactly how far I had to go to avoid the SOnic Boom but still get in without taking his ranged attack to the face At one point I ran too far and Feral Charged in. In the end, it was exhilerating. A tank and a healer, against all odds, ripping into Murmur and kicking him til he dropped his loots.

I think I earned my reward for the Naaru trial of Strength.

Next up, saving Millhouse Manastorm, my absolute favorite NPC of all time. I'm coming for you, Mr. Manastorm.

Restoration Raiding Consumables

Yes, it’s another of those posts. Inspired by Bear’s consumables post for Feral tanks, I want to take an in-depth look at all consumables available to a Restoration Druid. There’s a variety of these things to choose from, so let’s get cracking, shall we?

Elixirs and Flasks
For at least every boss fight, and perhaps some of the trash, you’re going to want either both a Battle Elixir and Guardian Elixir or a two-hour Flask. Generally, Flasking is cheaper, especially on new content, while Elixir combinations are more powerful, but fade when you die. It’s often a good idea that, if you expect to die a lot with little or no progress, Flask. Let’s take a quick look at all your options available to you.

Elixirs
Battle Elixirs
Elixir of Healing Power – This is hands-down the best Battle Elixir you can chug. It’s a straight-up +50 healing to you, and everyone loves the higher healing. However, when WotLK rolls around, it seems like…
Adept’s Elixir - …this sort of elixir may be a better all-around choice. Phaelia revealed that critting with heals will give a great bonus to a Tree’s spells. Though I am sure WotLK will bring all new alchemy recipes, including probably a better version of this. Still something to consider bringing along if you run out of mats for Healing Power; it does have a bonus of +24 healing.

Guardian Elixirs
Draenic Wisdom – Thanks to the changes in mana regen from patch 2.4, this has become the premiere raiding Battle Elixir. Increasing both your Intellect and Spirit by 30 helps your mana regen, increases your mana pool, and adds about 7 +healing to your tree aura. A triple threat!
Elixir of Major Mageblood – This elixir is a straight 16 mp5. If you’re going to be out of tree form for a while, this is arguably a better Elixir for the job than Draenic.
Elixir of Major Fortitude – Sometimes, you just need a boost to your health. Many upper level encounters have large AoE burst damage you just cannot mitigate, such as Naj’entus in BT, who deals an unavoidable 8k+ of pain when you burst his bubble. If you don’t have enough stam, consider bringing this along for 250 extra health and 10 hp5.

Flasks
Flask of Distilled Wisdom – There is some debate over this Flask. After 2.4, an increase in Intellect is an increase in the mp5 benefit of Spirit. This also has the added benefit of giving you a larger mana pool, which is almost as good as mp5. And for fights like Kaz’rogal, where your mana is drained and a lack of mana to drain results in someone exploding for over 10k damage, starting with a bigger mana pool can never hurt.
Flask of Mighty Restoration – This is a straight-up, no math required addition of 25 mp5 to your mana pool. This is a huge amount of straight mp5, so if you’re down on this vital stat this isn’t a bad flask to pick up.
Shattrath Flask of Mighty Restoration – This flask is exactly the same as the above mentioned buff, but it can be purchased using a Mark of the Illidari from those snooty guys in your Scryer or Aldor bank. However, you must be exalted with either the Scryer or the Aldor, the Sha’tar, and the Cenarion Expedition.
Flask of Chromatic Wonder - This flask was recommended by ryfo in my comments. He lists many great reasons to use this flask: it's cheap, it stacks with Blessing of Kings, it gives resistances, and is an all-around well-balanced flask. Consider this alternative, especially if you're going to be hitting Mother Shahraz or other resistance-sensitive fights.

Food
Food buffs are delicious, but perhaps only if you’re into seafood. Though you’re generally not supposed to exercise on a full stomach, being well-fed should ensure you’re never running out of steam.

Golden Fishsticks – This is the best food buff for both healing Priests and Druids. +44 to your healing and 20 spirit. The spirit adds to your mp5, as well as gives your aura another +5 to healing. Beneficial and well-rounded, this is almost always the food of choice.
Blackened Sporefish – This is a more situational bit of fish, as the straight 8 mp5 is not as beneficial as the spirit to a Tree druid, but that extra 20 stam can be a boon if you’re lacking health.
Spicy Crawdad/Fisherman's Feast - Providing a +30 stam buff and a +20 spirit buff, this is also a great option for when you need more stam than regen, and +20 just isn't enough. These were also suggested in the comments by kaaylia.
Feltail Delight – Though there are many food buffs that supply the same +20 stam/spirit combination (Mok’Nathal Shortribs, Talbuk Steak to name a few), I like this one because I can get it at the same time I fish for the other food buffs. It’s great for farm content/trash, and is generally much less expensive than the other two.

Weapon Oils
Brilliant Mana Oil – This is the best oil for the job. Well-rounded, with 12 mp5 and +25 to healing, the only problem with it is the cost. It’s an old-world recipe (Zandalar Rep), and rather rare, so expect its price to be gouged in the AH when you can find it, and the mats to be a bit more difficult to come by.
Superior Mana Oil – Acceptable and a nice mp5 boost, this is the most commonly used mana oil. 14 mp5 is nothing to scoff at, and every enchanter worth their salt will have the recipe.
Superior Wizard Oil - thanks to my amazing readers, this oil has been pointed out to have an unstated +42 buff to healing. Which is great if your mp5 has been soaring up but your base healing has been lagging behind. Thanks guys!

Scrolls
Though these don’t stack with player buffs, it’s nice to have something to spot-buff yourself with in-between chain pulls should you be unfortunate enough to die or after a Rebirth. This is particularly helpful with streams of pulls like in Mount Hyjal, where all pulls are timed and there are no/very few breaks for rebuffs. Included in this are Scroll of Spirit V, Scroll of Intellect V, and Scroll of Stamina V. Not necessary by any means, but, should you pick some up, they’re worth hanging onto.

Potions
Super Mana Potion – This is the mainstay of all mana-users. It’s a straight return to your mana, and therefore keeps you going when you’d otherwise be basically useless.
Auchenai Mana Potion - Just as good as a Super, this potion is purchaseable with two Spirit Shards. A nice, money-saving alternative.
Mana Potion Injector – This is a primo item. It saves bag space (something druids are always in desperate need of). There are a few mats needed besides just 20 Super Mana Pots, but I believe the space saved is well worth it. You need the room for all those epic loots.
Super Healing Potion – It’s always a good idea to carry a couple of these around. Sometimes, your mana pool is just fine, but you desperately need a boost to your health.
Auchenai Healin Potion - Just as good as a super, and purchaseable with two Spirit Shards.
Healing Potion Injector – Since you shouldn’t use so many Health Pots, this isn’t really necessary, but once again nice for the bag space.
Super Rejuvenation Potion – These suckers are great when you need health and mana! Just suck it down, enjoy the lovely grape flavor, and get back to healing without having to heal yourself. As much, anyway. Their mats are a little more extensive than a Health or Mana pot, however, so if you have the choice it might be better to go with…
Mad Alchemist Potion – Only for alchemists, these are like Super Rejuvs only with way less expensive mats and an interesting side-effect: a random elixir buff. The random buff won’t replace your current buffs, so feel free to use the whenever.
Fel Mana Potion – Though this potion supplies a debuff to your healing, its Mp5 value is arguably greater than a slight momentary drop in heal value. Obviously, this depends on the fight and your own gear, so it’s a judgment call. Phaelia did an article on the advantages of the Fel Mana Potion, but it may be out of date with the changes to mana regen in 2.4.

Remember, when available, to use raid-specific potions such as Cenarion Healing Salve and Cenarion Mana Salve for SSC (purchaseable with Coilfang Armaments right outside the instance, if you are Exalted with CE), and Bottled Nethergon Vapor and Bottled Nethergon Energy for TK.

Other
**Be aware: all of the following share a cooldown with your Healthstones**
Fel Blossoms – These mini-shields are handy for times when your healing isn’t going to do anything; such as the first phase of Reliquary of Souls, where all healing is effectively reduced to zero, including that of pots and stones. They can help keep you alive for just a bit longer. They are also only available to Herbalists.
Charged Crystal Focus – If you’re out of healthstones and there’s been no time to lay down a new soulwell, these work nicely in a pinch. You should find one or two every day you do your dailies in Blade’s Edge, and they only take a few Apexis Shards to charge up.
Demonic Rune – These are good for “oh no my mana pot is down but I really need some mana NOW” situations. They hurt you, and the return is small, but with how inexpensive Lifebloom is, it’s basically worth it to squeeze out another few if you’re in danger of going OOM. They're easily farmed from satyrs in Felwood.
Luminous Bluetail – A very small amount of mana, it may not be worth the healthstone cooldown. However, this one doesn’t hurt you like the Darkrune does. They're fishable on the Isle of Quel'danas, so you can snag some while you're doing your dailies, if you don't have to worry about being stabbed in the back.

Now that I'm done critting your face with my wall of text, I hope that's helped you decide what you need for raiding!

EDIT: i r dum when it comes to Mana Injectors. They are splittable. Thanks, Jon!

"Fun" with Ahune

I have not yet had a good run at Ahune, and I've downed him only twice. Never on Heroic. Let's see what we have...

Too much melee dps, and most under-geared.

A moonkin who socketed blue gear with spell haste (for a total of +16 haste, woo!) and melee'd the rock elemental mob (the one with the stacking AoE debuff?) to get mana back.

A rogue who wanted the paladin to run back and rez him on a complete wipe so he could talk to a guildmate for a strategy, when we had already stated the strategy. And everyone else was running back.

A group just running in and summoning without clearing any of the packs of trash that roam through the area.

A group asking multiple times what the strategy was, while in combat, while I was trying to heal everyone and everything and get them to move away from the giant earth elemental mob and keep the trash off of me and stay out of the shiny ice (because it's totally cool to get shot in the air, guys!) and dps the boss when he's just a core.

At this point I don't think my luck will let me have a good Ahune run. I think he could be an amazingly fun boss. If my group is never at least 2/5ths full of stupid.

/cry

Illidari Council: Notes from a First Try

To know more about the mobs and their abilities, check the guide found here.

The AoE's are ridiculously easy to avoid. I have my spell effects on medium and I play with 6 fps; the only time I died to an AoE was when another unfortunate combination occurred, such as Deadly Poison.

I would really like a mod that pings the map to let me know where someone who is affected by Deadly Poison is located.

The room is just big enough and the steps just awkward enough that LoS is deadly.

I was put on helping heal people who have the Deadly Poison debuff; I'm still debating if this is a good choice. My HoTs can't seem to stack fast enough and my other heals are too slow on the cast. I'm thinking I should request a tank assignment in lieu of raid healing.

If the WWS Report ever stops erroring, I'll be able to explore my effective healing a bit better.

I need more runs to decide if I should be out of tree form constantly or simply shift out when I need to run from an AoE. In some of the guide videos, I saw tree druids running out of the AoE without shifting forms; with the two second delay in damage taken it may be possible, if not the safest.

Tonight it is back to Black Temple to clear it all over again! Hopefully we'll just steamroll right on through so our next raid night will have more than an hour and a half for Council trash and attempts.

In other news, Part One of the Pre-Kara Resto Druid Guide is up! Thanks, Bear!

Mother Down!

Lacking SR pants and only having 24 members in the raid, along with being under-equipped with healers (we had two holy pallies, three holy priests and me), we took on Mother Shahraz for the first time tonight, and downed her after only about an hour and a half.

*happy sigh*


EDIT: I had most healing done and least overheal on the kill of Mother Shahraz. /flex

Karazhan Healing Cheat-Sheet

I realize now that I have not talked very much about Karazhan, which is quite surprising. Prior to my inception to Sunder, I had spent many, many months farming Kara over and over, almost exclusively. In doing so, I learned quite a lot about the different bosses and how to navigate them on a Restoration spec’d druid. This was requested by Kakalaki.

Attumen the Huntsman
Attumen is a very straightforward fight. A well-geared Restoration druid (or any healer, really) can solo heal him, but it’s not recommended if you’re uncomfortable with the fight. The basic idea is to keep HoTs ticking on the tank(s) (depending on your guild’s strategy). As soon as Attumen and Midnight combine, hug the horse’s butt. If you are too removed from Attumen, he will charge you, and sometimes one-shot you. To make things easier, it’s recommended to mark someone with a raid symbol and require everyone to stand on them.

Moroes
As a Restoration druid, this fight for you is very, very straightforward. Keep HoTs on the tanks, throw some heals on anyone else who needs it. If your group runs out of ways to eliminate the garrote, stack Lifeblooms on those affected. You don’t have to watch them too carefully; usually one Lifebloom is fine, and you can even let it bloom. It’s more important to keep your tanks up and those in charge of CCing the adds. Abolish Blinds when they come up (a mod like Decursive makes it very easy to see when this happens).

Maiden
Maiden is also very straightforward. You cannot dispel the Holy Fires, so you are purely healing. Watch your melee and keep them alive through the consecration, but more importantly keep your tank up. Watch for the Repentance and make sure your HoTs are fresh before it goes off. Staying in the consecrate will give you a silence debuff; however, if you can time it well, it’s helpful to jump into it right before a Repentance so the consecrate ticks knock you out of a stun. Be careful of doing it too early, or an ill-timed Holy Fire can kill you. Another option is having your tank aware of where you are standing and having him draw Maiden over to you for a consecrate tick.

Opera
Romulo and Julianne
This fight can be summed up simply as: heal the tanks. Throw a HoT on those hit by Julianne. Keep Abolish up on the Romulo tank.

Big Bad Wolf
Make sure you are prepared to Swiftmend or NS+HT the little Red Riding Hood. If you become Little Red Riding Hood, be aware of your surroundings and where to run. Pop Barkskin and pray for healing or a BoP. Otherwise, heal the tank.

Wizard of Oz
Like the Moroes fight, you cannot do much but heal and stay out of the way. If you have a Paladin, have him Judge Wisdom on the tin man once all the others are dead, and chase after him, giving him a little whack with your tree fists. Avoid the cyclones with the crone, and you’re home free.

Curator
Heal the tank on Curator, and throw some HoTs on the dps snagging the flares. Keep an eye out for who takes hurtfuls, and give them some Resto love. At 20% he will Enrage; watch his health and prepare to put all your HoTs on the main tank. During his Evocations, no one should be taking damage. If no one is in desperate need of healing, take advantage of a Dreamless Sleep Potion or simply your 5SR to regen some mana.

Illhoof
Your guild should give out raiding assignments. If you have three healers, the assignments generally go Tank, Raid or Warlock. Keep your assignment up with as many different HoTs as you need. If you can spare it, throw some HoTs up on those not your assignment, as they are always a help. Heal the person in Demon Chains, and if you start to be sacrificed, pop your Barkskin and pray your DPS is on the ball.

Shade of Aran
Resto Druids are very, very sneaky for this boss fight. Every other healer cannot stand close to Shade because of his counterspell ability he likes to spam. However, due to the instant-cast nature of Druid healing, you can stand basically on top of him, spam heals and never worry a bit about Blizzard. If you need to do anything with a cast time, simply back up, get it off, and go back in. When he pulls everyone to the middle, shifting forms will dispel the debuff. If you have the mana for it, while you’re at the wall, throw a Moonfire onto him.

Netherspite
Netherspite and I have a love-hate relationship. The Green Beam is excellent for healers, as it increases your healing output by a very large amount. However, as time goes by, it reduces your mana pool and, if your pool reaches zero, the beam continues to heal Netherspite. Most guilds assign a non-mana using dps for the Green Beam. If you have a Beam assignment, watch for the black circles opening up beneath you. Only move forward or backward. If you do not have a beam, still stick close to Netherspite, and remind your whole guild to do so as well. Everyone takes AoE damage, and if they are out of range of their healers, they die. When you run to the wall as Netherspite banishes, encourage everyone to bandage so you can conserve your mana.

Chess
Pick a piece. Use its abilities. Kill the enemy’s King. Win! (Our Chargers seem to always be the pieces which kill the King, go figure.)

Nightbane
Keep yourself at max range from the tank; this will help you avoid any and all AoE fears. Barkskin during rain of bones and try to keep HoTs ticking on as many people as you can. Move out of the Scorched Earth, and keep on your toes. Nightbane loves to decimate unwitting raids.

Prince
Prince can be a jerk in more ways than one. To eliminate most of your infernal problems, keep most of your ranged at the doorway and put the tank at max distance along the left wall. During Phase 1, feel free to throw HoTs on the melee and anyone else taking damage. Watch for Phase 2 at 60% and get every HoT on the main tank. Tell your melee to bandage if necessary, but your tank must be fully HoTted at all times. When Phase 3 arrives, you can relax a bit on your main tank. Barkskin when axes come for you, and make sure everyone who takes damage from them calls it out so you can throw them a heal or two.

Well, there you have it! A quick overview of all the bosses in Karazhan, except the animal bosses. But, ah, not many people do those, and I personally never have.

Good luck, and happy raiding!

Reliquary Down!

Reliquary of the Lost was downed by Sunder on Sunday night, and I was there for it. My first guild first in my new guild! Huzzah!

Loot:
[Grips of Damnation] (Hunter), [Naturewarden's Treads] (Elemental Shaman)

Here's a quick overview of the fight:

RoS is a very interesting fight. First phase is intense, since no one can heal. Druids can't dispell the soul drain, so if you can do it, put up Insect Swarm on the boss to help it miss people. Pop Barkskin when you're fixated, and only take a Fixate once unless you're a feral druid with enough HP to take it twice. All you can do is DPS, so keep it up until Desire.

When Desire is out, keep an eye on the dps. Be aware of who has high burst damage and get HoTs up on them before Deaden is active so they have a little leeway. Don't bother minding your mana, as it's constantly being decreased and the ghosts will fill it back up at the end anyway.

Anger has to be burned and fast. You will start taking too much damage too quickly the longer he is alive. On the flip side, your tanks will have to burn through their rage/mana to keep it from burning them, so your dps will be riding your tank's tail for the whole fight. I'd advise you to save your Nature Protection Potion for when Spite falls on you instead of popping it in the beginning; if you don't get Spite you'll want your Health Potion ready to go. Pop Barkskin when you think you need it, and Tranquility is one of the most amazing group heals for this boss. Make sure you use it, especially if you're in the main tank group. Your guild should have CoH priests and resto shamans assigned to the raid for this; your HoTs cannot keep up and cannot stack fast enough. Instead, make sure all your HoTs, and I mean all of them, are on the main tank. Throw a few on yourself and others, but keep HoTs ticking.

When we downed RoS, six people remained alive (and luckily two of them were paladins), including myself. The main tank died at roughly 3% of the boss; we burned them down. The holy paladin Sharlet got the killing blow on RoS.

This is a fun, fast-paced, technical fight.

Don't kick the Deadens, rogues.

I am NOT a Potted Plant

I’m calling shenanigans. Tree Form has to be a colossal joke upon the entire druid class. I’m not kidding.

Don’t get me wrong. I love Tree of Life Form. It’s spectacular with its aura and the reduction in mana-cost to healing. The tree dance is great (let’s do the twist, kids), and the animations we have are hilarious. I love to “sleep” by sticking my little root feets into the ground and hang my head.

But the fun stops there. And, oddly enough, it is stopped by what is perhaps the weirdest and most arbitrary mechanic built into the Tree of Life form:

The 20% speed reduction.

Now, I know there are issues with how Remove Curse isn’t available in Tree Form, but even that doesn’t get my goat as much as this ridiculous mechanic. It actually forces druids to not use the form best suited for their job in upper raid boss encounters. When mobility is an issue, you leave your wooden hide behind and muck it up in caster form.

Well, you say, this is easy enough to do and not that detrimental. Why do we care?

I’ll tell you why.

Look at your Shadow Priest. See that nice, pretty Shadowform? Would you ask the priest to leave Shadowform to DPS? No? What about a Moonkin? Bear tanks? No? So they never, even when mobility is involved, have to leave the forms which maximize their abilities? But, say, if we resto druids have to move a lot on, perhaps, Archimonde, it’s best the Tree is, well, not a tree.

Well, we ask them to switch out if we need an emergency off-healer, you say. And I would reply, of course you do. Because that was not the role that form was designed for. If I’m in a fight where I cannot heal, I am out of tree form and putting up Insect Swarm and Moonfire. But if I’m in a fight where I expect to heal, I expect to be in the form best suited for my intended role.

Being able to “get away” is highly important in many later raid fights. Being in tree form, rather than being an asset to your raid through auras and mana longevity, makes you a detriment to your raid. If you can’t run out of Doomfires, if you take a second longer in the Volcanoes, you are a problem. Most likely, you are also dead.

I am often placed in the main tank group so that my aura can affect as many tanks as possible, increasing the healing output of all healers assigned to them. On half of the fights TK and up, however, I’m a fixture without utility in that group, waiting for trash so my aura can go back up. I cannot keep up with the pain train through gauntlets like the one in ZA or the one before Reliquary of Souls in my Tree Form, and those are perhaps where mana efficiency and a steady stream of good healing on the tanks is needed the most. Half of the Kael encounter I am out of form, I am out of form for Archimonde, Supremus, Void Reaver, even Netherspite, for crying out loud, all because of some silly, weird, completely arbitrary 20% speed decrease.

Perhaps someone can enlighten me as to how this ridiculous mechanic is necessary. I cannot think of a single reason to keep this mechanic in the tree. Perhaps it is to keep Restoration druids from increasing their healing output in arenas. However, Tree of Life aura is increased by a quarter of your Spirit. Arena gear has no spirit, so healing will be increased only marginally. There is also still the danger of being banished while in form and being out of a fight for much too long. Add in the base mana cost of tree form and it is highly ineffective in arenas.

So, I’ll ask again:

How is the speed reduction anything other than arbitrary?

Wow, You're A Big One

Decisions, Decisions...

While I already had my opinion on the matter, it's come to my attention that not everyone shares this opinion. I'm willing to forgive the fact that this is blasphemy and explore these other ideas.

The topic of the day: PUGs and Guildies.

Now, I'm no longer in a guild. So, I PUG or do things with old guildies who still love me. Twice, on two seperate days, right in a row, however, I was removed from a PUG by the group leader to make way for their guildy.

The first was a hopeful ZA clear that just needed a healer. They explained their guildmate had better gear and had wanted to go. I said cool, no big deal, guildies come first, and left the raid. I then went to ZG with some fun people and played with the raptor guy and Gahz'ranka. No mount or tome, but I did get this cool Primal Hakkari Tabard that I lack the rep to turn in.

The next day it was a heroic Slave Pens run (not the daily), which I was removed from not five seconds after joining, with a whispered apology about a mix-up and a guildy wanting to go. Once again, no big deal.

Now, how I see it is that, no matter my reaction, I was not getting to go in this group. Had I thrown a fit or freaked out, all I would have done was made myself look bad. And honestly, in both groups, I had not gone anywhere, bought anything or gone out of my way before I had been removed, so I had not been inconvenienced in the slightest. I didn't need Cenarion Rep; I'm Exalted. And running Raids with PUGs isn't the most fun, I know. So, not a problem in any sense.

I've also been in the position before of having to decide if we keep the PUG we just picked up or lose them in favor of a guildmate. It's a hard decision, especially when it comes to raids. It's even more difficult for the person who has to tell the PUG "sorry, we can't take you" and deal with the lashback. So, understanding that, my feathers weren't ruffled in the slightest.

Of course, this does not mean I advocate elitist mentalities or other such insulting behavior. I simply understand the problem that can arise from inviting a PUG over a guildmate. Heck, I've seen problems arise when one guildmate is invited over another!

I've always thought Guildies Come First.

I was a little surprised that when I mentioned it off-hand to my friend that he became a tad bit miffed. He said he would never ditch someone he had already invited, as it was the guildmate's fault for not speaking up sooner, or being not being online, or what have you. I can see this side of the argument, especially if you're trying to teach your raiders the consequences of not showing up when they sign up.

Still, in the end, pitching a fit won't change anything, and it is a difficult decision. People also apolgize much more profusely about it if you swear it's okay. Apparantly, being perfectly fine with being removed from a group invokes more guilt than if you had bit back.